Viewer for floor and ceiling tile or other covering



J1me 1965 M. c. MILLER ETAL 3,188,760

VIEWER FOR FLOOR AND CEILING TILE OR OTHER COVERING Filed March 20, 1962 Y 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 4 Fl 5. i.

@ I8 l4 60 :2 1e 22 IN ENTOR.

MORROW C. "4.29. WALTER T. Luu ELL BY Donna M. MAC A qw w ATTORNEY J1me 1965 M. c. MILLER ETAL VIEWER FOR FLOOR AND CEILING TILE OR OTHER COVERING Filed March 20, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. MORROW C. MILLER W LTER T. LvNnELL BY D ALnMMAcKAY ATTORNEY United States Patent I 3,188,760 VIEWER FOR FLQOR AND CEILING TILE 0R OTHER COVERING Morrow C. Miller, Martinsville, Walter T. Lundell, Somerville, and Donald M. MacKay, Plainfield, N.J., assignors to Johns-Manville Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Mar. 20, 1962, Ser. No. 181,067 2 Claims. (Cl. 40-63) This invention relates to viewers; more particularly,

it relates to a slide viewer in which film slides of wall coverings such as floor, ceiling, or side wall coverings may be used to illustrate how such coverings would appear in relation to the covering of an adjacent wall when installed in an existing room. The term wall, as used herein, embraces floors and ceilings as well as side walls of a room. I When buying floor, ceiling, or other wall covering material, such as tile, carpeting, planks, wall paper, etc., it is difficult to visualize from small samples of the material how it would appear when installed on a given surface in an existing room, in relation to the appearance of an existing surface which the given surface adjoins or intersects. Even when samples are compared with existing walls, it is difficult to determine how a large expanse of the material would appear. It would be desirable, therefore, to be able to view realistically and compare various types of colors and designs of covering material in their intended surroundings.

It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide a device which will show realistically, without a requirement for the use of large samples, how such materials would appear, with respect to their surrounding surfaces when installed on a, given wall surface in an existing room.

Another object of the invention is to provide a viewer which is simple in construction and economical to manufacture.

Briefly, the invention comprises a film slide viewer having two chambers, one of which is similar to the usual viewer, that is, having means for receiving a slide, a light source, and a lens for viewing the slide. The other chamber is provided with an eyehole, but no lens, and portions of the chamber are cut away to permit the operator to see the covering of an existing wall of the room in which the new floor, ceiling, or other wall covering is to be installed. Since one eye views the slide of the covering material and the other eye views the existing wall covering against which the comparison is to be made the views will appear to be superimposed, and it will appear that the covering material is installed in place on the particular wall of the room to which the new covering material is to be applied.

The nature of the invention will be more fully understood and other objects may become apparent, from the following detailed description, considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the viewer of the present invention, showing the front side thereof;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the viewer, showing the back thereof;

FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the length of the viewer;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a representation of a slide which may be used with the viewer of the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1-4 of the drawing, two viewer sections or chambers and 12 of generally rectangular cross section are connected at side walls 14 and 16 thereof 3,188,760 Patented June 15, 1965 by any suitable means to opposite sides of an elongated support 18 to form a slide viewer unit 20. The chamber 10 is provided with a front wall 22 in which a lens 24, shown as a double convex lens, is mounted in an eyehole 26. A vertical slot 28 is provided in the side wall 30 opposite the side wall 14 for receiving a film slide. The slot 28 extends substantially the full height of the wall 30 and is spaced from the lens 24 a distance equal to the focal length of the lens. Extending across the interior surfaces of the bottom and top walls of the viewer section 10 are guide tracks 32 positioned on opposite sides of the slot 28 and adapted to receive and hold a film slide in upright position. Spaced slightly from the slot 28 and guide tracks 32 is an opaque housing 34 secured to the side walls 14 and 30 by rivets 36 or some other suitable means. The housing 34 is trapezoidal in both horizontal and vertical cross section and is open at the front end thereof which is the larger end. The back of the housing is provided with an opening or aperture for receiving an electric light bulb. Held between the rearmost guide track 32 and the front edges of the housing 34 is a translucent plate 38 of plastic or glass separating the light source from the slide and serving to diffuse the light.

Pivotally mounted at 40 to the side walls 14 and 30 adjacent the connection of the housing 34 is a generally C-shaped closure member 42, comprising upper and lower legs 44 and 46 connected to a back wall 48. The upper and lower legs form a continuation of the upper and lower walls of the viewer section or chamber 10. A projection 50 on the lower leg 46 resiliently engages the edge of the lower wall of chamber 10 to hold the closure member 42 in closed condition.

Mounted in the center of the inner surface of the back wall 48 by suitable means, such as screws or rivets, is a receptacle 52 for receiving an electric light bulb 54. A

resilient leaf switch 56, mounted adjacent wall 14 in thepath of the guide tracks 32, is connected to the bulb 54 through batteries 58 by a suitable circuit, which is conventional and is not shown for purposes of clarity. It should be understood that a manually operated switch could be substituted for the slide actuated leaf switch 56, or a lighting arrangement adapted to use house current could also be provided.

The viewer chamber 12 is provided with a front wall 60 having an eyehole 62 therein, but unlike the eyehole 26 of the viewer chamber 10, no lens is provided in the eyehole 62. Of course, a clear glass plate could be provided in eyehole 62, if desired. Substantial portions of the upper, side, and back walls of the viewer chamber 12 are cutaway to permit a relatively large expanse of wall surface to be viewed through the eyehole 62. The remaining back wall portion or mask 64 of viewer chamber 12 has a horizontal upper edge 66 lying in the same plane as the apparent upper edge of a film slide in the viewer chamber 10. The size of the cutaway portion of viewer chamber 12 may vary according to the amount of wall surface it is desired to expose. the viewer, however, the cutaway was proportioned so that 6 x 6 foot wall area was exposed at a distance of eight feet from the wall.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, a slide 68 of conventional dimensions may be used. The upper portion 70 of the slide is blacked out and is separated along a horizontal line 71 from the lower portion 72, which bears a representation illustrating a floor or ceiling covering. The line of separation between the two portions of the slide is so located that it will correspond in height to the upper edge 66 of mask 64 when the slide is positioned in the viewer chamber 10.

If it is desired to view a slide showing a floor covering, the operator inserts the slide 68 through the slot 28, wi h the blackened portion '10 uppermost, until the edge of In one embodiment of the slide contacts the leaf switch 56, which closes the light circuit to actuate the light bulb 54. The viewer is tilted downwardly toward the baseboard of the ,room until the upper edge 66 of the mask 64' is aligned with'the' intersection of a the wall and'floor, so that the floor is blocked from view. The right eye of the operator will see the lowermost port-ion 72 of the slide 68, while the It is merely necessary'to invertthe viewerand to insert 9 an appropriate slide if it is desired to view various ceiling coverings in their proposed environment. In this position, the mask 64 would preventthe ceiling from being viewed by the eye looking through eyehole 62; 'In the same manner as described above in connection with the floor covering, the ceiling covering would-appear to be installed in the room; In a similar manner, theappearance of a proposed side wall surfacecovering, depicted on portion 72 of the film slide, can' be viewed in apparent adjacency to an existing floor or ceiling surface. 'For comparison of the proposed side wall surface with an existing floor surface, the zviewershould be inverted; for

comparison with an existing ceiling surface,it may be held top-side-up.

7 Instead of the partially blacked out slide 68, illustrated in FIG.'5, a slide of a height equal to the portion 72 may be used. In order for the viewer; to receive such a slide, it would merely be necessary to modify the viewer by lowering the upper wall of the viewer section 10 to accommodate the relatively low slide. It should be understood that the above described viewer chamber 12 need not take the form of the viewer chamber 10, but may oomprise'any suitable means for part-ially'blockin g the vision so that the operator sees only'the wall with one eye, and so that the 'film slide image appears to blend with the wall surface. V v

Obviously, many modifications of the present invention are possible in the light of the foregoing disclosure, and such modifications are intended to-fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What we claim is: p w

1. A slide viewer comprising a first-enclosed chamber, a lens in one end of the chamber, a slot in the chamber for receiving a film slide, a film slide bearing a representation disposed in the chamber, a second chamber connected to the'first' chamber, an eyehole in the end'of the second chamber adjacent the, lens of the first chamber, the other end of the second chamber being partially masked by a wall terminating in an edge extending substantially horizontally when the viewer is. held in ope ating position by an operator, said representation having a substantially horizontal upper edge, the second chamber being open above the edge of the wall and the first chamber being closed to the view above the upper edge of the representation, said edge of the wall and the upper edge of the representation being substantially horizontally aligned so that the view seen through the eyehole of the second chamber appears to be vertically adjacent the slide representation seen through the lens of the first chamber.

-2.' A' slide viewer as recited in claim 1, including additionally aIs-ourc'e of light in the first chamber to illuminate a slide. therein.

References Cited byitheExaminer.

: 7 V UNITED STATES PATENTS= I1/ 35 Gordon 88- 20 X 2,020,033 -11/35 Kitchin 8'8-41 2,032,829 3/36 Bar-tky 88-20 X 2,168,352 8/ 39 Lawry 35-59 2,301,274 11 1/42 G-reiser 35-53 2,449,699 9/48 Higgins 40- 63 2,694,369 1 1/54 Baireuther et a1; 40-63 2,794,367 6/57- Turner 40-63 2,808,775 I10/57 Scott 35-59 X JEROME SOHNALL; Primary 'Examz'ner. 1 E. V. BENHAM, Examiner. 

1. A SLIDE VIEWER COMPRISING A FIRST-ENCLOSED CHAMBER, A LENS IN ONE END OF THE CHAMBER, A SLOT IN THE CHAMBER FOR RECEIVING A FILM SLIDE, A FILM SLIDE BEARING A REPRESENTATION DISPOSED IN THE CHAMBER, A SECOND CHAMBER CONNECTED TO THE FIRST CHAMBER, AN EYEHOLE IN THE END OF THE SECOND CHAMBER ADJACENT THE LENS OF THE FIRST CHAMBER, THE OTHER END OF THE SECOND CHAMBER BEING PARTIALLY MASKED BY A WALL TERMINATING IN AN EDGE EXTENDING SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTALLY WHEN THE VIEWER IS HELD IN OPERATING POSITION BY AN OPERATOR, SAID REPRESENTATION HAVING A SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL UPPER EDGE, THE SECOND CHAMBER BEING OPEN ABOVE THE EDGE OF THE WALL AND THE FIRST CHAMBER BEING CLOSED TO THE VIEW ABOVE THE UPPER EDGE OF THE REPRESENTATION, SAID EDGE OF THE WALL AND THE UPPER EDGE OF THE REPRESENTATION BEING SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTALLY ALIGNED SO THAT THE VIEW SEEN THROUGH THE EYEHOLE OF THE SECOND CHAMBER APPEARS TO BE VERTICALLY ADJACENT THE SLIDE REPRESENTATION SEEN THROUGH THE LENS OF THE FIRST CHAMBER. 